Annie Clark began playing guitar at age 12. As a teenager, she got a sense of a touring musician's life when she accompanied her uncle Tuck Andress on tour as he traveled with his popular jazz duo Tuck & Patti. After graduating from high school in 2001, Clark spent three years studying at the Berklee School of Music, leaving in 2004 to join Baroque pop group the Polyphonic Spree.
Two years later, Sufjan Stevens asked Clark if she would work with him. Before going on tour, she recorded an EP to sell at the shows, for which she adopted the name St. Vincent.
In 2007, she released her first full-length album, Marry Me, under the label Beggars Banquet. Her second album, Actor (released with British independent label 4AD) earned strong reviews and, coupled with her energetic live performances, moved the album from indie to mainstream charts. Her third album, Strange Mercy, was released in September 2011.
The next year, Clark collaborated with David Byrne to create Love This Giant, a joint album from St. Vincent and the Talking Heads musician. Clark spent most of 2012 and 2013 touring in support of the project.
Her fourth solo project, the self-titled St. Vincent, was released in February 2014. It earned Clark her first Grammy, for Best Alternative Album.

ANNIE CLARK: Being from Texas and being a woman, there's a big tendency to just be a people pleaser and tell people what they want to hear and not rock the boat or stir the pot. That's something that I've just had to overcome.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

For me once I discovered music, I didn't look back. I was eight when Nirvana Never Mind came out and Pearl Jam 10. Grunge really swept the nation, and definitely swept the suburbs of Dallas where I was living. I wanted to do what they were doing. It never occurred to me or cross my mind that it was something that I couldn't do or shouldn't do. And I was never told as much.

I would mostly just hole up in my room, and I was able to record myself and experiment. I just had the freedom to create.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I moved to New York City and had about enough money to last three months there. And I ran out of money and ended up moving back in with my parents to Dallas, Texas. I was shell shocked-- like, oh my god, I dropped out of college and I failed in New York. And what am I going to do? But I got asked to try out for a band called the Polyphonic Spree. And so, I ended up going on tour with them. I learned how to play rock guitar really. It was like being in a rock summer camp. That seemed like some sort of thing that was re-affirming, like, OK, maybe you should be making music.

People talk about getting your big break. That just seems to me to be the result of cumulative incremental effort. It was this at fluky period in 2005 to 2006 when Myspace was really relevant and when labels were scouring the internet looking for bands and interesting things and blogs were really championing things and giving people real head starts in their careers. So I hit it at this intersection, had a record, got some attention from labels, and then was on my way.

[MUSIC - ANNIE CLARK, "CHEERLEADER"]

(SINGING) I've had good times with some bad guys. I've told whole lies with a half smile. Held your--

I tend to try to put something beautiful next to something kind of creepy or a little bit off putting. That just seems to kind of get me more excited than just something that's pretty or just something that's harsh.

(SINGING) I don't want to be a cheerleader no more.

I kind of like to play with that struggle and that balance.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(SINGING) I'm so happy because today I found my friends. They're in my head. I'm so ugly but that's OK because so are you. We broke our mirros. Sunday morning, it's every day for all I care, and I'm not scared. Light my candles in the days because I found God, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I probably will never make music that is hugely, hugely popular. But that's OK. I would rather make the kind of music that I want to make and get to feel really vital and alive through it and live through it than necessarily just jump for that brass ring.